Chapter 4
"Usual compartment?" Chris questioned. He dodged a lost first year with Muggle clothing still on, though his own near ancient attire wasn't any better.
"No, the perfects – from both schools – need to patrol the floors first." Wosret replied, opening up the compartment at the end of the hallway on the first floor.
"So that means…" Ron asked, looking very confused.
"It means that the badges go off and forget about us slackers." Nakhte replied, throwing his trunk up into the rack above the seats. He then flopped onto the cushioned seat below it.
"Yeah, actually, that does define it quite well." Wosret said, rubbing his chin in thought. "You don't have to come though, Ron."
"No, I'll come." Ron replied eagerly, wanting to see the rest of the ship.
"We're off then, see you in about an hour or two." Wosret said before he and Ron walked off down the hall of several lost first years.
Chris also threw his trunk up into the racks and also tossed Harry's and Ron's up too.
"Did Wosret spend the entire summer at school?" Chris questioned, sitting down on the seat opposite Nakhte. Harry slowly took the seat by the window.
Nakhte nodded and began to play with the single, gold hoop earring in his left jackal ear atop his head. After several seconds, he began to twitch slightly from the silence. When less than five minutes went by of no conversation, he finally sat up on the verge of losing it.
"Okay, is no one starts talking about something soon, I am going to jump out the window."
"We could talk about how bad your feet stink, but I would rather you just jump out the window." A female voice came from under Nakhte's seat, causing him to jump slightly. "We haven't even left the dock yet and already you're going crazy. This is a new record."
"Oh stuff it and get out Kitty." Nakhte said, lifting his feet back onto the seat to let the goddess up.
A sandy blond head appeared seconds later from under the seat. "Help me up or feel the wrath of the Desert Kitten."
"Yes your highness." Chris mumbled, taking a hold of Kitty's arms and pulling her out.
"Thank you, faithful servant." Kitty replied, sitting down on the floor with her back against the wall. She turned her head to Harry. "We were never properly introduced, I'm Miw-Sher, but you can call me Kitten or Kitty." Seeing the confused look on Harry's face, she also added. "Miw-Sher means Kitten in Ancient Egyptian."
"I'm Nakhte, which means strong." The cocky god said proudly. "My dad's the Egyptian god of Death."
"Uh-huh," Harry replied, looking around the compartment uncomfortably.
"Personally, he scares the hell out of me." Kitty stated truthfully. "I hate death – Nefret's death I can live with though. Wish it would happen… come to think of it, I wouldn't mind Nakhte's death either."
"Well that's not very nice, now is it?" Nakhte muttered, rolling his eyes.
"Flirt," Chris muttered, though neither Kitty nor Nakhte heard him luckily.
"What about you Chris, aren't you going to introduce yourself?" Kitty questioned, raising her left eyebrow.
"Christopher Estrada at your service. Chris for short."
"The rest'll introduce themselves when we get to Nile's Edge." Kitty stated, looking around boredly.
There was another whistle a few seconds later, then the engines rumbled to life, causing the ship to jerk forward, Harry nearly falling onto Kitty in the process.
"I'm feeling seasick already." Chris complained, rubbing his temples.
"That's what I meant to grab before I came here." Kitty mumbled, snapping her fingers. "I'll go grab that potion Nefertem made for you in the other cabin, Chris. Want to come Harry, a small tour if you would call it."
"Sure," the wizard replied, standing up.
"We'll be waiting here, Kit." Nakhte stated lazily, closing his eyes while Kitty and Harry walked out of the cabin and into the long, wide hallway.
"So… what do you travel by to get to – Hogwarts is it?"
"Yeah, it's Hogwarts." Harry replied, following Kitty down the winding hallway. "We use a train."
Kitty stopped in her tracks. "What's a train?"
Harry gaped at her. "You've never heard of a train?" Kitty shook her head. "You don't get out much do you."
"No, I live with my father in a small village for the few remaining retired gods of Ancient Egypt. The only time I ever see the outside world is when I go over to Emma or Zalika's house, and that ain't much."
"What happened to your mother?" Harry asked out of curiosity.
Kitty's face went to stone as she averted her green cat eyes from connecting with his. "Nothing, nothing at all. Anything interesting happen at school so far?"
"Where to start." Harry replied with a chuckle, thinking back to his first year, with the Philosopher's Stone, then the Basilisk, then Sirius, and then the Triwizard Tournament.
"Didn't your school have the Triwizard Tournament last year?" Kitty questioned, breaking the wizard's thoughts.
Harry nodded and was about to say something when Nefret crashed into him.
"Watch where you're going!" the blond shrieked, shoving Harry out of her way.
"Ann eazinak, Nefret." Kitty replied with a deep bow, her bushy hair falling in her face. "Oh wait, I forgot you can't understand Arabic."
"Step off, Miw-Sher." Ramses sneered, walking down the hall with the Slytherins trailing behind him still with their bags.
"As you command, my Pharaoh." Kitty stated mockingly, sticking her nose up in the air as she passed with group with Harry following behind her, glaring at Draco and his group of Slytherins.
"Watch it Kitten, one of these days Set will get you and all will come to darkness." Nefret warned, reaching into the pocket of her robe for her wand.
"No, Nefret, you watch it." Kitty stated in a grave tone of voice as she kept walking down the hall.
Fuming, the young witch whipped out her wand and pointed it at Kitty. She was about to throw a curse at her, when Ramses lowered her hand.
"Her time will come." He muttered to her as he led the Slytherins into an empty compartment.
"It had better be soon." Nefret replied quietly, stuffing her wand back into her pocket.
Emma appeared in the doorway to a compartment just a few feet in front of Harry and Kitty. She held out a small vile of a yellow liquid as she smiled shyly.
"Let me guess, you had a feeling I was going to come?" Kitty questioned, taking the vile in her smallish hand.
Emma blushed. "Yes, but you two had better get into compartments quick, the ship's behind schedule!"
Kitty's eyes opened wide. She quickly nodded her thanks to Emma – who then closed the door – and grabbed Harry's arm before running down the hallway they had just come from.
"What's so bad about the ship being behind schedule?" Harry asked as they ran into their compartment, then sitting down.
Kitty handed Chris the vile, which he then quickly drank, and turned to Harry as she flopped onto the seat opposite him.
"The ships behind schedule again?" Nakhte asked, sitting upright from his spot (thanks to Kitty) on the floor.
"Yup, fasten your seatbelts." Kitty ordered, strapping herself to the seat. The others followed suit.
"What's so bad about the ship being behind schedule?" Harry demanded again.
"Hyper drive, ever since the beginning of the school the ship's been behind schedule by this time." Chris explained, grabbing the handle beside his seat and hanging on for dear life. "This really isn't fun."
An announcement came over the loudspeakers in Arabic, then Ancient Egyptian as the ship began to slowly go faster.
"What was that?" Harry questioned, looking up at the ceiling.
Wosret and Ron came bursting into the room, quickly sitting down in the two empty seats and buckling up.
"An announcement stating that we're all gonna die, nothing much." Kitty replied, rolling her eyes.
Harry and Ron looked at each other with wide eyes.
"She's joking, it was just saying that everyone needs to get strapped in or else they're going to get hurt." Wosret stated, chuckling slightly.
All the Invaders shut their eyes and braced themselves for the crushing feeling them were accustomed to.
Not even two seconds later did the ship finally kick into high gear, racing against time to stay on schedule as it soared down the Nile, invisible to all those not of immortal blood.